Page 19 of Puck Me Sideways

Hux laughed out loud, leaning back against the doors, barring exit in that direction. I nodded over my shoulder. Shannon took up position at the back of the room, trapping everyone inside.

“It doesn’t matter.” Janelle stepped out from behind her desk, her hair pulled into a demure ponytail, wearing the baggiest brown dress I’d ever seen on that woman. “She can’t work here after that.” She gestured to the mess on the wall where Hallie rode me in the gym.

Damn, I needed to remake that scene with her and have her clean the equipment with her tongue while I took her from behind.

I scoffed. “Are you fucking kidding me? You’ve been screwing around with Hux for over a week, and before that every time you bent down, I got to say hello to your great-grandmother right along your gene line,baby,” I tacked on with a sneer, belatedly noting her red-rimmed eyes and backed off the sarcasm an inch.

Hallie tilted her head to one side. “But she’s not with Hux anymore, are you?”

Janelle stepped back, shook her head and retreated to her desk. “Do whatever you want, Hallie,” she said in a small, tired voice, so unlike her usual outspoken personality that I stared.

But Hallie seemed to get it, still wrapped in her strange mood. “Did you meet Kylie Smart, Hux?”

The captain leaned away from the door, his show of bravado dropping. I squeezed her arm in warning.

“He came out to tell me,” I murmured. “He’s on your side.”

“And I’m on his,” she replied enigmatically, her voice lowered as she looked up at me, her eyes clear.

I studied her and nodded, ignoring the ongoing slideshow of us fucking overhead. Someone had the sense to stop the thing, and the room dimmed a little.

“Yes, actually, he did.” The girl with the gold nails and the fake hair to match from the kitchen yesterday before Hallie went nuts on me sauntered across the room, sliding her arm through Hux’s. She smiled brightly—too fucking brightly for the occasion—at everyone who gawked at the stranger in our midst. “I don’t think he’ll be playing with office girls anymore. You should probably reconsider, too,” she said to me pointedly. “I’ve already removed her from one player before.” She dismissed Hallie as though she was nothing, studying her gold, primped nails.

Hallie flinched.

All that show—the pictures of us fucking in full sight, the bullying, the words, the fat shaming in the lunchroom… everything, andthis womanmade her react?

The penny dropped for me in full. “You’re the other woman.” I stared at Kylie. “The puck bunny Hallie’s ex cheated on her with.”

Kylie didn’t bother to look at me, intent on doing something with those damn talons attached to her fingers. Which meant she missed Hux’s look of disgust aimed right at the top of her head.

Cap shook his arm free. “Get off me. And get the fuck out. I should have known better.”

Kylie glanced up at him. “I’m sure you’ll get over it. These things happen.”

I straightened behind Hallie. “Cap said get out. You want me to ring security?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Want your photos back, big boy?”

“Fuck this.” Hux dived into her bag, grabbed her phone, and tossed it to me. “That’s yours now, man. Do what you need. I got this.”

Kylie snarled at him as I texted security. It wouldn’t hurt for a little back up. Hux didn’t need a litigation case on his hands after everything. A wail went up from the side of the office. Hux sent an alarmed glance at Janelle who dissolved into tears at her desk as he escorted Kylie from the building under duress.

The door shut behind them. No one moved.

Well, no one, except for Hallie who took her coffee, the one I bought her before we got breakfast, and placed it in front of Janelle. “This one stays hot for hours. It’s really good, too. I think Solace has good taste, but don’t tell him. We should probably try to find that coffee shop later, okay? Go for a walk?”

Janelle lifted red rimmed eyes to meet Hallie’s face and nodded with a trembling lip. “Okay,” she whispered.

Hallie hugged her and I swore my heart exploded on the spot.

Somewhere in the back, one of the boys whistled. I promised myself I’d give him a reprieve of a day before I hunted him down.

Hux reentered the room, swept an inked hand through his hair, and offered me a tired nod. “She’s banned from the grounds. Someone send a warning out to the other clubs about the show pony stalker before she infected them all, for God’s sake.”

“I’ll do it.” Hallie turned back to me and slid her arms around my neck. “Love you, too,” she whispered in my ear softly, but somehow loud enough for the entire office to hear.

“Damn, I need to find a girl like that,” Hux muttered soberly.

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